Birds, Iguanas, and Howler Monkeys

Tuesday we had an excruciatingly early morning I had to be up at 5:30 which means it was 4:30 back home. Ugh.
Why was I up so early? Well because supposedly it's the best time to go bird watching. We had a professional bird watching guide come and teach us how to identify some of the many different species in Belize. In the hour we spent standing on the side of the road we saw 15 different species of birds. It was cool to finally learn which birds were making all the different sounds we had been hearing.
After bird watching we had breakfast and then we had a lecture on ecotourism and conservation efforts and issues.

We went into town for lunch before heading over to the San Ignacio Hotel where they have the Green Iguana Conservation Project. On the hotel property they have a several iguana enclosures that house iguanas that have been hatched and reared on site. We were brought into the iguana enclosure and taught how to properly restrain them and how to tell the difference between the males and females.

We also go to feed them.

Then we were able to go into the hatchery and I got to see a baby iguana coming out of its egg.
That was pretty cool.




The hatchery was already full of really young 2-3 day old iguanas and it was our job to move them into the young iguana enclosure where they would have more room.
After that we had to put our restraining skill to the test by having to restrain some of the older iguanas long enough to carry them to a release site on the hotel property. The iguanas were then released into the wild. This is the iguana I got to release. I named him Napoleon.

I also ate some termites...Yummy tastes like wood.






Wednesday after breakfast we drove out to the Community Baboon Sanctuary. It was exactly how it sounds, there is a community of about seven different villages and the black howler monkeys live within the community. Landowners in the area have pledged to conserve their land for the protection of the howler monkey habitat. Our guide led us around several people’s backyards to find troops of howler monkeys. While on the search for some monkeys the guide pointed out different plants and what they we’re used for. It was amazing learning about all the things some of these plants could do. Some could be used as pregnancy tests indicators and others to help different ailments. Eventually we found a troop of monkeys just chillin in the trees.

I guess they are pretty used to human interaction because they came right down to us. There were about 5-6 of them including two incredibly adorable babies. They we’re very curious and one even tried to climb onto one of the other girls backpacks. The guide got the male to howl for us by howling himself. It's a very intense loud sucking in sound that can be heard up to three miles away!

What are you lookin at?

BABY MONKEY!!!!!








Back at the sanctuary center we had lunch and I tried cashew wine.